The Black Mage Experience
by DAve and Bob
Summary: Waking up in a random Laboratory with your arm replaced was strange, what was even stranger was that you had no memory besides your own name and a strange voice in your head that kept telling you to do things along with them stating the arm belonged to the great black mage Zeref. Now it's a race to reach Alvarez before one of the many people that want your head takes it.


**Chapter 1**

**The Zeref Experience.**

A coughed echoed through the sterile room. A table in the center of it wiggled as a human opened their eyes. "D-damn it..." A groan escaped the teen's mouth as he sat up, glass surrounding him on all four walls.

His brain tried to piece together where he was and why, but it was merely a jumbled mess of thoughts and memories.

_"So, you are awake..."_

The teen eye twitched while a voice spoke to him from inside of his brain. He instantly shot up, getting a good look at himself in one of the many glass walls that littered the area. He had brown hair and green eyes, with a somewhat slender build.

"Who are you?" The teen pressed his hand against his head. But before the voice inside his brain could respond, another sound echoed through the room.

**"Testing subject 617, please start the experiment." **

The voice was cold, almost robotic. It spouted out what seemed like meaningless drivel, that was until a thick fog of green mist began to fill the space.

"W-what the h-hell?" The teen coughed. He attempted to breathe the altered air. Each time he did, it felt like pins were poking and prodding his lungs.

_"She's doing this again, take a look at your arm." _

The teen winced while his gaze shifted to his bandaged up arm. "W-wait, this isn't my arm!" Even though he couldn't see it, he just felt that something was off.

_"If you can truly hear my voice, then you aren't like the others. Now unwrap that arm, unless you enjoy the thought of dying here."_

The teen winced, there was no doubt about it. The way his insides felt like they were burning told him he'd die if he stayed. "Fine, whatever!"

He took the bandaged and yanked it off. The moment he did something akin to the force of a hammer slammed into his brain. From the base of his spine to the bottom of his feet, he felt a strange tingling sensation. Then, in an instant, his once brown hair turned jet black. His green eyes turned red, all the while magic gathered around him.

"S-shit..." The teen instinctively raised his arm. In an instant all the glass in the room shattered along with the walls that were behind the lens. The metal cage he had been thrown into warped and twisted into a crumpled up piece of foil, the poisonous gas spilling out into the nearby hallway.

**"Shit, damn! I didn't expect him to destroy the room like that! All personnel, head to the level two basement this instant!" **

The teen took a deep breath before he staggered out of the destroyed facility. The lovely sterile walls flashed red due to the warning lights that were flashing about.

"Where am I, and how the hell do I get out of here?!" Even though it seemed like the teen was speaking to himself, the words were pointed to the voice in his head.

_"You're rather slow on the upkeep. I'll make it simple for you, just head upward. If you manage to make it that far, then you may have your reward of information."_

The teen couldn't help but growl at the voice. "Fine, whatever, don't know where you are, but I guess it doesn't matter."

The teen's eyes locked onto the nearby wall; there wasn't a map or anything he could use. His best bet would be just picking a direction and running. "I guess this is the right way!" The teen pressed his foot against the floor and dashed the east hall.

Though it didn't take long for him to be stopped, what stood between him and the exit were a slew of masked men, all carrying knives and swords. The teen's eye twitched as the voice over the speaker yelled out once again.

**"Remember, don't mess up the goods too much. Breaking his bones is fine, but this is our most successful test subject yet. It'd be a shame if he died."**

The men gripped their weapons as they dashed towards their target.

_"If you want to kill them, raise your left arm, if you don't raise your right."_

"W-what the hell kind of choice is that?!" The teen snapped as he quickly raised his right arm. In an instant, a torrent of flames blasted through the hallway knocking the guards into the air. The teen froze while he examined his palm, wondering where exactly the magic came from.

_"Isn't it a waste of time wondering how that happened? The stairway is right in front of you, after all."_

The teen groaned as he ran up the first set of stairs. The next floor itself was far dirtier, or rather it lacked the sterile feeling that the previous basement floor had. It seemed closer to a regular factory than some hellish research facility.

"Hey, do you know how close we are to the exit?" The teen spoke aloud as more guards flooded the area to block the way. He gritted his teeth as the voice spoke once again.

_"No, but the next pathway should lead to the exit."_

The teen had no idea why the voice seemed confident, though, given the circumstances, it probably knew more than he did. The teen raised his arm again as seemingly random elements escaped from his palm.

All of them which was used to clear a path to the exit they sought. The teen continued to run, passing by the unconscious bodies of the guards that he had defeated.

After a few more twists and turns, they entered a giant room. One that was near twice the size of the place they had started in, at the opposite end, seemed like a ladder that led to some sort of hatch.

"That has to be the way out of here!" The teen grinned as he motioned towards the hatch, but before he could make any sudden movements, a voice from above rang out again.

**"You idiots can't do anything right! Fine, fine, I wanted to test this thing anyway." **

The teen froze as a seemingly random hatch from the floor slowly split open. From it stood a machine that was at least the height of three men. It had arms, but no feet, instead having what appeared to be tire treads.

"The hell is this shit!?" The teen staggered back as the two cannon's on the machine's back aimed directly at him.

**"Ah, well, just cut off all the limbs except the arm. We need him alive, if only barely."**

The cannons started to spin, which forced the teen to dodge out of the way. Bullets tore through the floor following each one of the teen's movements.

_"Even if it's a machine, you should still be able to 'kill' it." _

"What the hell do you mean? Don't shit with me!" The teen realized he probably said that wrong.

_"Use the other arm, the one that you unbandaged before."_

The teen's eye locked onto the miscolored arm. If it was like the voice had told him before, the only thing he would have to do was raise it, and something would happen.

The teen forced himself to stop, the bullets the machine had been firing inching closer to its target. The black-haired teen gritted his teeth as he raised his arm.

A similar feeling traveled through his body and down his spine. In a matter of seconds, a black orb formed in the teen's palm. The sphere then released itself from the caster's palm, ripping straight through the middle of the machine and straight through the roof of the facility.

The machine twitched and buckled. The lacrima that had been powering was utterly shattered.

"It looks like we won't even need to use the hatch." The teen laughed as he used the now inoperable machine as a stepping stone. He kicked off the fallen behemoth exiting the facility through the newly created hole.

* * *

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" A woman with dark purple hair slammed her hand against the monitors. "I can't believe that he escaped that easily!" She hissed as she quickly buttoned up her lab robe.

"Kekekeke!" Another voice echoed through the cramped monitor room. "You screwed the pooch on this one, huh? We finally got a working subject, and you let him slip through your fingers."

From the shadows, another woman appeared. She wore a strange dress, one half pure white and the other half black. Her eyes gleamed two different opposing colors as well, one similar to the sea and the other to fire. The strange woman then twirled her long grey hair, as if to tell her partner she was utterly uninterested.

"Don't be so casual about this!" The scientist snapped. "This entire project was for you. Do you know how hard it was to drag that soul back out? Now we don't even have it in our possession."

The grey-haired woman shrugged. "We didn't need all of it. Besides, I already have both the white and black mages power in my body. This was just a little side project."

The purple-haired woman raised her brow. "Even so, having 617 run around freely will cause issues later. Truthfully, I figured it'd be another failure, but it appears I underestimated myself."

The grey-haired woman burst into a fit of laughter. "Only you can spin this into a positive!"

The purple-haired woman scoffed. "Gris, if you felt that way, why didn't you step in? Even if the subject has the power of the black mage, you could have at least subdued them."

Gris waved her hand, making her way to the back door of the room. "That ain't my job, besides telling the higher-ups about what happened here is way funnier!" With those words, Gris exited the room, something that forced the purple-haired woman to growl.

"That bitch...it looks like I'm going to have to lead the capture myself. Though it may be in my best interest to wait a few days before sending anyone out..."

* * *

"W-what the hell?" The teen looked around the empty wasteland: nothing but stones and rocks for miles upon miles. "T-there is no one around!"

_"A test facility in the middle of a desert. That would be the best location to pick one."_

"Damn it all! Don't sound so casual about this! Even if we are out now, those guys might be following us!"

_"They are not..."_

"How can you be so sure! Even if you are, we are in the middle of nowhere!" This wasn't a good position to be in, walking in a random direction might have them end up in a ditch somewhere.

_"Head West."_

The teen was about to follow the instructions before he stopped himself. He ran his fingers through his hair, the color of which had returned to its natural state. "Before I do anything else...who the hell are you?"

_"Is that the question you want to be answered at this moment?"_

"Hell yeah, I do! Do you think I'll listen to a random voice in my head? If you don't start talking, I'll head in the opposite direction you tell me to spite you!"

It was an overtly, childish way to handle the situation. Though given the case, the voice had no reason to keep the truth from the teen.

_"My name is Zeref."_

"Zeref, what kind of name is that? Who the hell are you? You got a minute to answer me!"

_"So you haven't heard of me...that makes things simpler."_

"You didn't answer my question!"

The voice scoffed. _"What is your name? It is rather rude to let someone else give their name and not your own."_

The teen winced while he scratched his head. "Uh, I think my name is Braun."

_"You think?"_

"Shut up, my memory is a bit fuzzy, the only thing I remember is my name is that I'm looking for someone." Braun held his head as he started to drag his feet forward.

_"Who is this person?"_

"If I knew that I wouldn't have said, someone," Braun growled. "Ugh, whatever, thinking about this is pissing me off."

_"If that's the case, you should have in grievances following my instructions." _The way Zeref spoke got under Braun's skin. Something about those words specifically that caused the teen to gnash his teeth.

So, Braun's nostrils flared. "Like I said before, when you talk like that, it makes me not want to do anything you say. Besides, why would I follow someone I can't even see?"

_"Well, look at it this way. That magic you used before was mine; in a sense, I saved you."_

The teen's eye twitched as he looked at the rebandaged arm. The cogs in his brain slowly started to turn. "So this is your arm, which means..."

_"So, you understand."_

"Yeah, there must be a hidden communication device on this arm!"

It seemed that Braun wasn't just the impatient type, but also a complete moran. Though, those traits seemed to go hand and hand with one another.

_"I shall put it plainly for you. You and I are connected; if one dies, we both die. And while such a thing does not bother me, I would assume that you want to keep living."_

Braun groaned. "You're not going to screw me over, are you?" While the whole situation seemed far-fetched, it wasn't like Braun had anything better to do.

_"If I wished to do that, wouldn't I have done that while we were in that lab? Regardless, before I die again, there is something I have to do."_

"Tsk, whatever. Just to let you know, my body, my rules. If I at any moment think what you're saying is stupid, I'm going to ignore it." Braun set some ground rules before he continued. "You wanted to go west. I'll listen to you, but I need to know what's there."

_"To be blunt, I don't know where we are. I do, however, know that our most significant chance of success would be to head to Alvarez."_

"Fine, I'll agree with that. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to find that person I'm looking for."

It was worth a shot, at the very least it would be better than wandering around a wasteland hoping to stumble upon something.

_Ah, you are far more tolerable when you agree with me."_

Braun groaned before he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Damn, these clothes are all torn up. Yo, Zeref, do you know anything about those guys from before?"

The brown-haired teen spoke to his arm. A part of him knew he probably didn't need to do such a thing, but it felt better than just talking into the air.

_"If you are talking about the ones that had you imprisoned, I do not. I do not know where they hail from, nor do I know their goal, a part of me hoped that you would know."_

"Heh, and here I thought you were some all-knowing god or something."

_"Not even the gods themselves are all-knowing."_

Braun rolled his eyes. "Not here to get into a debate with you. Right now, I need to find some clothes. I look like an escaped convict."

Zeref did not respond, instead opting to stay quiet about a topic he had no interest in.

"Fine, ignore me if you want. That will make things easier for me!" Braun snickered he and his newly acquired 'arm' made their way through the field.

Though after an hour of walking with barely a town in sight, the brown-haired teen couldn't help but groan. "Ey, Zeref, about that magic from earlier. The one that came from your arm, it seemed a bit different than I stuff I used before."

_"So, you noticed?"_

"Of course, I did. It ripped through that machine in an instant. I can only imagine what it would do to another person."

_"It would kill them."_

"That much is obvious!" Braun snarled. "I guess all those elemental spells were yours too, right? I doubt normal people would be able to cast them with just a wave of their hand."

_"Such an occurrence only happened because I was helping you. If you wish to use those spells properly, you will have to learn them."_

"Waste of time." Braun quickly shot down the offer. "The set-up we have is good enough. Plus, me having to think about complicated stuff like that is annoying."

_"It should be noted. There is only so much I can do in this state. Even if you have no interest now, you may want to look into it when you get the opportunity."_

Braun crossed his arms, like a child being lectured by their mother. "I get it. I get it...I'll look into it when we get to that Alvarez place."

The two walked further and further until they finally stepped over a steep hill. There were finally some signs of life, a small town nestled next to a beach.

_"Oh..."_

Braun raised his brow and looked at his arm. "What, you know this place?"

_"Yes, and if I am correct, then getting back to Alvarez may take longer than expected."_

"What do you mean by that?"

_"We aren't currently on the Alakitasia continent, but rather in Fiore."_

Braun closed one of his eyes. "So, we're going to have to travel to a different country, no big deal."

_"You say that, but getting into Alvarez isn't simple. I personally made sure of that."_

Braun merely snorted. "You're just a talking arm, whatever you didn't couldn't have been that impressive if you're stuck with me."

_"I suppose failure is the best teaching method."_

Braun's eye twitched as his gaze locked back onto his arm. "Bastard...I'll make you eat those words."

**Author Note**

**I wanted to start the story on some mystery and some action. Not sure if it will be super popular or not, but it was pretty fun to write.**


End file.
